What A Year This Week Has Been

Hi guys,

This is a long one.  I almost couldn’t get it all in.  I’ll go slow.

We’ve been up to stuff … and it’s legal and everything!  Mike and I have done another podcast (#25) and the theme is was what I refer to as the greatest hour of television ever created:  Pee Wee’s Playhouse Christmas Special.  I know it’s a little late for Christmas… or maybe it’s early for this Christmas.  It’s only 350+ days away.  Rejoice!   The audio versions are here.

This podcast was suggested to us by one of our Patreon listeners, Melissa. (Thanks, Melissa!)  If you would like to see our mugs actually talking the talk, the video version is on the YouTubes now.

Now by donating a couple of bucks a month, as a Patron you get an exclusive bonus mini-podcast where Mike and I discuss the obituaries of the souls who have departed since the previous podcast, plus you also get early access to the main podcast.  The Patreon page is here: Dearly Departed Podcast is creating Podcast | Patreon

In addition to Pee Wee, we also talk about my new home near Palm Springs, Mike’s (re)visit to Barker Ranch, where the Manson Family were busted, and spotting Suicide Bridge on the show Scrubs, and of course (heart)… Haaaate Maaaail.   Someone sent me an email slamming me for referring to James Dean as “Jimmy.”  Eyeroll.  If you’d like to watch that offensive James Dean video, which is really about the poor sod who accidentally killed Jimmy, you can increase my views and I will be so grateful.

LOOK AT ME!!!!!

I’ve been focusing quite a bit on making my mini-documentaries for YouTube.   As you know, the Tours part of Dearly Departed Tours isn’t really up and running during this demic we can pan.  I’ve had to turn my deathy attention elsewhere.  Since I now live in the Palm Springs area, (but still pop in to LA often) I’ve been having a lot of fun exploring the new hood. This time I went hunting for Frank Sinatra’s grave. I was surprised to find out that Frank’s original grave marker has been removed and replaced with a new one!  Here’s the video.  This means that yes, even in death, you can get a makeover.  If you would like to support my videos, please click the thumbs-up and subscribe buttons.

Q: WHAT’S GREEN AND SINGS?

A: Frank Snotra

OK RELAX

Dolly Parton did her thing by reading bedtime stories – here’s my take on it.  Trashy Tabloids.  My newest video is thumbing through the TV Mirror from February 1970.  I love these rags and bought this particular one because the cast of Laugh-In was on the cover.  This issue is absolutely heaving with good stuff.  On top of all the celebrity gossip, the ads for wigs, bust enhancers, cigarettes and tampons are fab.  All my favorite products!  You can check it out here.

BOO

Speaking of trash (KIDDING!) This week I appeared on an episode of Ghost Adventures with Zak Bagans.

How ’bout those smiles!  The notorious elevators at The Cecil Hotel.

This is my third appearance on the show.  The first was a few years ago, on the episode all about Hollywood (go finger.)  We filmed at the Hollywood Sign and I spoke about Peg Entwistle’s suicide off the Hollywood sign (well, technically it was still the Hollywoodland sign then but it would be pretentious to point that out.)

So yeah Ghost Adventures aired this week – and even if you’re not into the paranormal, it’s a pretty epic episode:  The Cecil Hotel.  If you’ve seen the “Hotel” season of the tv show  American Horror Story, it was based on the Cecil Hotel.  Creepy Lady Gaga didn’t really live there, but two serial killers did during their sprees, one being the Night Stalker (AKA Richard Ramirez) who terrorized California in the mid-1980s.  Ramirez is of the most famous serial killers of all time.  Of course having a snappy nickname and engaging in Satanic courtroom antics doesn’t hurt.  But this guy chewed on someone’s eyeball.  I don’t think you heard me.  He chewed on someone’s eyeball.

Bless.

The Cecil Hotel has some serious bad stuff going on since it opened in the 1920’s.  Skads of deaths.  From suicides, murders, overdoses, rapes to boring old natural deaths.  There are dozens of documented deaths at the Cecil.

SOUP

The Cecil became even more notorious in recent years, because a Canadian tourist named Elisa Lam was staying there when she went missing.  A couple of weeks later, residents of the hotel began to complain about the lousy water pressure in the shower and sinks.  Then came the discoloration and the bad smell from the running water.  Uh oh, Spaghetti-O’s.  Some poor maintenance person went on the roof to check the water tanks was none-too-pleased to find Ms. Lam had been floating in it.  Steeping in it.  For. Weeks.  What was more bonkers about this terrible death is the security camera footage that was discovered of her on the hotel elevator the day before she disappeared.

Elisa Lam was seen in the footage behaving very strangely.  She was alone and seemed jumpy.  Then she seemed to be hiding from someone (who didn’t exist), then stepping out and peeking around the corner.  There was no one else around.

There is some seriously bad juju happening at the Cecil Hotel.

The death of Elisa Lam is genuinely sad and we’re not making fun of what happened.   However … people brushed their teeth and showered in that water.  It’s hard not to scream when you think about it.

It aired this week on the Discovery Plus channel.  I know.  I don’t have it either.

(Pssssst if you don’t want to pay for it, you can sign up for a free seven-day trial on discoveryplus.com, watch it, then cancel.  Not that I would ever condone that kind of behavior.  Ever.  Don’t tell anybody that I told you.)

Random fun fact:  In 1987, when the M in MTV still stood for Music, U2 released the song Where the Streets Have No Name and filmed the video for it on a rooftop in downtown Los Angeles.  The story goes, during the filming someone called in a noise/crowd complaint to the police, who dutifully came out to break up the rooftop concert. (The police have nothing better to do in a high-crime area but to tend to Bono.)  It turned into a hassle, it was filmed perfectly and released as the official video.

A lot of people have noted that they ripped off paid homage to the concert The Beatles staged on a London rooftop in 1969.   U2 has been accused of calling the police on themselves to create drama for the cameras, which of course they deny.  No one believes them.  The thing that makes U2 interesting is that they played this concert on the rooftop next door to the Cecil, so the nasty hotel that is the Cecil is clearly visible as a background extra.  Enjoy!  U2 – Where The Streets Have No Name – YouTube

Another fun fact: The Edge plays pretty much the same riff in every song.  Like most U2 songs, once you hear it, you can’t un-hear it.

YES MOTHER I’M DOING MY BUST EXERCISES

In closing, our friend Elisa Jordan from L.A. Woman Tours, who also can’t do the Tours part of L.A. Woman Tours, is going virtual.  The next presentation is in a couple of weeks to celebrate Sharon Tate’s birthday. You can watch live on January 23 at 10:30am Pacific Time or you can watch a link a few days later.  The event focuses entirely on Sharon’s life.   No murder talk on this one, and a portion of the proceeds will be donated in Sharon’s name to Justice for Homicide Victims, the charity Debra Tate personally supports.  Debra is so amazing.  You can get a ticket to the event here: Who Was Sharon Tate? Tickets, Sat, Jan 23, 2021 at 10:30 AM | Eventbrite

Thank you to everyone who subscribe and actually read this newsletter, watch my YouTube videos, listen to the podcasts, donates to Patreon … THANK YOU!   The past year suh-huh-huhcccccckkkkkkkked.  It’s been miserable and awful and terrible and painful for so many people.  I’m glad we have this common bond by delving into other people’s misery.  In shitty times you learn who your true friends and supporters are.  You thems are the best.

Love,
Scott and the Dearly Departed Team

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